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Hi this is my first blog it’s about my dog Max the dog with epilepsy, the sadness of watching his seizures the panic they bring and what I’m trying to improve his well being.
I have decided on a change of diet for Max just to see, this is a trial that I want to share, and if it works hope that it may give other pet owners some hope of reducing if not stopping this terrible ailment that some pets have to live with.
Hi all sorry I’ve not updated for a while, I’m still having the seizures nearly every 3 months and only had one bad one where my person had to insert Diazepam in part of my body that I won’t go into detail about (howl out loud). They have nearly weaned me off the Pexion, I’m now on 1/2 a pill a day but will soon stop altogether.
Well now for the bad news, my head has an indentation which I’m told could be masticatory muscle myositis or effects from my epilepsy. After a check up at the Vets today they want to do a MRI scan,blood tests etc and have quoted £2500 (yes that’s a lotta dog treats). I’ve now set up a go fund me to help to raise the money needed, if I don’t get diagnosed my muscle will stop my jaw opening and cause lots of pain. I’m asking all you lovely pet lovers for your help even the smallest of donations will help me and I’ll be sincerely thankful to anyone who can help.
So if you are interested in donating this is the link. https://www.gofundme.com/mri-scan-for-max
Thank you all
Max
So far so good, touch wood. Max seems a lot livelier this week and seems to really enjoy his new diet. He has a mixture of raw meat and cooked meat, alternating every 2 days. These are mixed with brown rice and green vegetables with a little mashed carrot now and again. Max will also have apple, banana a few hours before or after meals, also the odd egg raw or soft boiled. It’s recommended to feed at a rate of 2 -3 % of body weight which works out about 1 lb of food, I split this 50% meat 30% rice 20% veg. This is topped up with multi vitamins. Max’s coat is still really shiny as it alway has been and no weight gain. So now just taking it day by day. If anyone has any advice or tips, I would appreciate hearing from you so please use the comments box.
Taken from the Pexion website
What is Pexion and how does it work?
Pexion is a treatment for dogs with primary epilepsy. It acts on a specific receptor in the brain cells to reduce the amount of excessive electrical activity present. In this way, like all epilepsy treatments, Pexion acts to reduce the number of seizures that your dog has and their impact on your dog’s life.
My experience of Pexion
This is the medication that Max is on, he has 1.5 tablets twice aday these tablets are 400mg. Your dog may start off on a smaller dose if prescribed starting at 10mg/ 1kg in body weight twice aday.This can be increased to 30mg/1kg body weight twice a day. So Max is on quite a high dose with him being around the 30kg body weight. We have cut them down from the maximum does as we felt he wasn’t any better or worse than he was before they upped the dose. The other reason was his lethargy and lack off interest. As I’ve already explained Max still fits about once a month and I still feel he could be cut back too 1 x 400mg twice aday. I will be talking with the vet about this on his next review in 3 months.
Max had another seizure last night, which was quite a bad one. He seams to know when they are coming on as he try’s to attract our attention, so we new it was coming. It all started as a mild attack with him just lying there shaking, this lasted for a few minutes. As he started to come out of it and he tried standing he suddenly went straight into another as in cluster seizures. His back legs went first before the rest of his body went to ground. Now these types of seizures are the most frightening, when he is trying to flip around and all his limbs are ridged, you feel sure he’s going to either break a leg or do other damage to him self.this went on for about 5 minutes but seamed a lot longer.
I have seen Max have several seizures of this type, but every time he goes though one is less disturbing and frightening as the first. It’s always there in the back of your mind weather he’s gonna come out of it OK or if he will come out it at all. So hopefully now he won’t have another for a least a month, but hoping for longer if his new diet starts working.
Over the years we began to notice that Max never had a seizure during December, this being a time when he eats far less of the Masters dry food than he normally eats. He will eat mostly the same as us having plenty of extra meat etc over the Xmas period. So I have decided to cut out the dry food altogether as I been reading about wheat in dog food and it’s possible association with epilepsy in dogs and people alike.
So what do I feed him you ask? He has Chicken wings, thighs, sardines, pilchards, mackerel, all mixed with rice or potato, egg some veg and certain fruit. He has what we eat if it’s quite plain ie roast dinner, a stew ect. He seams to really enjoy his meals and I haven’t noticed anything different in his toilet habits, no upset stomach.
Max is an 8 year old black Labrador whom we’ve had since a puppy of 8weeks, we got Max from a friend of a gamekeeper I met while working in Oxfordshire. Both his parents and grand parents were good working dogs and came from excellent pedigree.
Maxs was alway a happy fun dog who enjoyed his long walks, playing fetch and playing with the children and his numinous toys. Every thing was great untill he reached his 4th birthday, that’s when it all changed, his first epileptic seizure. As anyone knows who has a dog or cat that suffer from this ailment it can be very distressing for the owner and the pet alike.
I rushed Max straight to the vets where he was kept in over night. The next day we collected him and was told it may be a one off incident, or it may become a regular occurrence, and regular occurrence is what it became. Max was now having seizures on a regular basis of 1 to 2 a month, adventually he was given medication in the form of Pexion 400mg tablets.
the amount of tablets prescribed went from 1 a day to 4 a day over 12 months,this is when we started to notice he was getting far less active. His walks became shorter and the rest of the time he would sleep. The seizures were still 1 a month so there was not much improvement from 1 tablet to the 4 he was taking, so I decided to cut back on his meds to 2 aday. Max became a lot more active enjoying walks, ect.
On his next 3 month check up I informed the vet about cutting down on his meds, and after going though our diary of the fits he had had over the past 6 months he agreed but advised 3 Pexion aday. His seizures still come on nearly monthly so after reading several articles on the Internet of canine epilepsy especially about wheat in dry food, have decided to try a change in diet.
